Technology developments and user requirements are driving change in mission critical communications around the world. The programme for Critical Communications World focuses on the theme of Success in Cooperation. With 3 jam-packed days of speaker sessions, panel discussions, focus forums, keynote addresses and more, be sure to take a look at the programme in advance. 

You can find the full programme here, but below is an overview of the keynote addresses and panel discussions for day one. Critical Communications World is taking place in Helsinki from 23-25 May 2023 - you can register your place here.  

Day one - Tues 23rd May

Keynote Address from the Finnish Ministry: High-level state-of-the-nation address from the Finnish Ministry to discuss current priorities within critical communications.

Keynote Address: Success in Cooperation: This keynote will address the importance of effective cooperation between different authorities and stakeholders, which can enable advances in critical communications by learning from each other about what works well, and where the challenges and pitfalls can be. Real life examples will be given through the Virve 2 project in Finland.

Panel discussion: The use of LMR/PMR or broadband at major events and incidents: This session will include real-life examples to demonstrate how critical communications technologies and ways of working have been successfully deployed during recent large-scale events and incidents. It will describe the challenges and how these were overcome.

Panel discussion: What does it take to get MCX critical? This session will discuss the progress in enabling new multimedia MCX and IoT solutions for operators and first responders with mission critical broadband communication. It will highlight the benefits of MCX and what is needed to actually make it work.

Panel discussion: Power resilience and energy sustainability: Energy has been a critical consideration for telecoms operators for decades, and with ongoing technology development, and the increasingly urgent need to move to a much more sustainable model, the picture has become ever more complex. Furthermore, in a number of European countries, nations have been preparing for power shortages and potential power cuts over the winter.

This discussion will explore the different aspects of sustainability, and increasing use of energy - and the technologies / techniques that are being introduced and developed to mitigate the impact on the environment, and ultimately on climate change. It will also examine the impacts of energy sustainability on the effectiveness of critical communications and the infrastructure.

Panel discussion: The decade of managed transition - success criteria and pitfalls: Drawing from their own experiences, representatives from key Government organisations and operators will discuss what is truly needed to make the transition to critical broadband a success.

Panel discussion: In the common Virve 2 boat: This panel discussion will describe how the transition to Virve 2 is progressing from a number of different view-points. It will address what tha main challenges have been and the main lessons learned.

Panel discussion: Integrating Satellite connectivity into public safety networks and first responder communication: How can public safety operators benefit from this development? How could future network architectures look like?

Panel discussion: Help from the stars: Non-terrestrial communications: In this panel discussion, the different possibilities of non-terrestrial networks for critical communications will be addressed, including communication, location services and sensoring.